Massive open online courses (MOOCs) will not replace universities but will force them to rethink how they educate their students, leaders of two of the leading MOOCs predicted at this week’s SXSWedu conference.

MOOCs are “different from the old-style online courses that were more like correspondence courses,” given their massive scale and “new cool tools to help you learn and give feedback in discussion forums,” Pappano said. Unlike those more traditional offerings, however, MOOCs are only starting to carve out a path to being recognized for college credit.